Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Pesticides and the Human Body
Every day we are exposed to perhaps 10,000 chemicals, mainly in food
but also by air that we inhale. And every year in the United States,
about 700 new chemicals are introduced into the environment and are
not checked for toxicity in a very thorough way. The key point to
keep in mind is that the cumulative effect of the various pesticide
poisons in the human body is unknown. Tens of thousands of different
pesticides are used in American agriculture. At least fi fty-three of them
are known to be carcinogenic and have devastating effects on the human
body. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that there
are 10,000 to 20,000 physician-diagnosed cases of pesticide poisoning
among agricultural workers each year in the United States. Because
many cases are undiagnosed, the true number of cases may well be
much higher. Farmers who work with pesticides get Parkinson's disease,
have damaged immune systems, have lower quality and quantity of
sperm in men, and develop several types of cancer more often than the
general public does. A British study concluded that more than 10 per-
cent of those who are regularly exposed to organophosphate pesticides
(most commercial pesticides) will suffer irreversible physical and mental
damage.
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The Centers for Disease Control has found 116 pesticides and other
artifi cial chemicals in human blood and urine, chemicals that are passed
on from mother to child through placental fl uids and breast milk. Expo-
sure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy affects not only a woman's
children but her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well. With
rare exceptions, assurances from the federal government that the amounts
people swallow are not harmful, is not something you would want to
bet your life on. But we do. There is no way to verify such assurances.
The only guaranteed safe exposure is no exposure.
There are no health data for many pesticides for toxicity, cancer-
causing potential, or endocrine disruption. More than 2,000 chemicals
enter the market every year, and most of them do not go through even
the simplest tests to determine toxicity. And when testing is done, the
chemicals are tested individually, despite the fact that chemicals ingested
in combination can be much more harmful than the chemicals are indi-
vidually. Because of fi nancial and time constraints, thorough testing of
chemicals in combination is impossible. According to a survey by an
environmental organization, about a quarter of substances labeled as
